Genealogy is a broad topic. Its branches span infinitely through science and history and intertwine the two. Genealogy seems to arouse specific interests because it involves the paleo-etiology of skin tone and several archeological findings. Genealogy has the capability to unearth archaeological findings because it also helps form the puzzle that tell the story. It?s been said that blacks come of all colors but not everyone necessarily knows why. The American negro is much more than a black person that?s native of the United States. The term refers to anyone of African-descent in the America(s). Most history books fail to emphasize that. As a matter of fact, blacks have had a history of existence in the America?s prior to enslavement by European settlers. There are nearly countless names for blacks of different sorts still in existence:
Afro-Darienite, Afro-Olmec, Ouchita, Creole, Garifuna etc.

Even in effect today, is the "one-drop rule". It states that anyone with so much as a speck of African ancestry is a negro with all disregard to the fairness of their skin. There are words to describe how much black blood a person has:
Designated Nomenclature
Percentage and/or Fraction Of Negro Blood
Negro
Anything above 50% percent
Mulatto
? (50%)
Quadroon
? (25%)
Octoroon
1/8 (12.5%)
Sambo
1/16 (6.25%)
Casco
1/32(3.125%)
Mustifino
1/64 (1.0625%)
Mustifee
1/128 (0.53125%)


The word "sambo" specifically means an admixture of black and Indian.














A genealogist would encounter great difficulty determining the amount of each ethnicity a person has because if they were to research a persons history with knowledge of the fact that they had an Indian ancestor?they wouldn?t quite know how much Indian that person was because due to the fact that prior to and during slavery, natives and blacks had been intermixing . That would justify many African Americans rangiong in a variety of colors. Statements made in the fast couple of centuries tell us that it?s been going on for quite a while:

Descriptions Of Runaways
Slaveholders That reported The Runaways
" . . . well made and very black" 1
Richard Blackledge (Sheriff)
" . . . a small, yellow Negro wench named Hannah" 2
Stephen Dence
" . . .middling black . . ." 3
John Brown
1 Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, November 5,1767
2 Virginia Gazette, March 26,1767, Williamsburg 3 Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, April 23, 1767
"In fact, many American blacks would not be perceived as black in the Caribbean, but as brown or "red-skinned."
-cited from Stormfront forum


In fact, it's been said that Africans have been known to migrate into Central America millinia ago. Evidence to support the statement has been found:
An ancient West African Oni has been seen holding similar artifacts as the Columbus San Augustine culture stone carving of a Shaman. The Olmec heads have African features. Places we know now as Cameroon and Guinea of the Ivory Coast had traded with the sea-faring Phoenicians around 1500 B.C. and had all the while been expanding their trade to different parts of the Americas. Blacks were spotted by the first Spanish explorers in present day Panama and Columbia. In both Meso-America and West Africa, archaeological evidence had been found to support the claim that Africans influenced the Olmec civilization and/or founded the civilization due to the fact that the religious practices were so similar to the Ono and Dogon people of West Africa. With the decipherments of Olmec script, archaeologists have made the connection-It matches the Mend script from the Mende language still spoken in West Africa today.AFRO-OLMECS

Hundreds of terra cotta and Negritic figurines have been found around Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Mississippi which is also known as Washita or ?Ouchita? Proper.:


East and southeast Texas are places that are mainly occupied by people of mixed blood??blacks in particular? due to the fact that some in those regions have roots in Louisiana where a lot of the mixing occurred; hence the common Cajun names "Broussard, H颥rt, Thibodeaux, Breaux, Cormier, etc." My mother's matrilineal grandmother was born in Jasper, Jasper County, Texas (great grandmother) and her mother was a pure-bred Cree Indian who had married a pure Black man who was my maternal great great grandfather whose grand or great grandparents had been slaves?He had the surname Adams. So the bloodline goes on as follows:
Generation

Great-Great Grandmother
Non-black
Great grandmother (Dessie Adams)
Black
Indian
Grandmother (Pauline Martin)
Black Indian
Mother:
(*) Black 1/8 Indian (white blood: 1/16+__)
I ,(Nicholas H颥rt)
(*) Black 1/16 Indian (white blood: 1/16 +__)
Throughout the generations, there is a positive trend of African blood on the matrilineal line
The asterisk refers to the unknown because it?s impossible to calculate the Negro blood if there is a missing fraction that represents the white blood from the Creole line but the black blood can be estimated as more or less than (7/8)


There is a French system for determining black blood with it?s multitude of nomenclatures. I?ve devised a table to relate:
Name
Parts Of Black and White
Noir
0-7 parts white
Sacatra
8-23 parts white
Griffe
24-39 parts white
Maribou
40-48 parts white
Mulatre
49-70 parts white
Quarteron
71-100 parts white
Metif
101-112 parts white
Mamelouc
113-120 parts white
Quateronne
121-124 parts white
Sang-Mele
125-127 part white


The above terms refer to different types of Creole. My mothers paternal side of her family were Creoles and her maternal side of the family had a great deal of Indian blood. My paternal father also had Creole lineage. He in fact had a Cajun surname. Researching a surname often brings you into etymology when it comes to genealogy. The name ?H颥rt came from the Acadian part of France. It originated in Normandy and at the time, Normans were the purest French known to the area. It has Germanic routes but it wouldn?t necessarily mean that I have German lineage. When Germans frequently raided France, those type of names came into fashion. When the Normans conquered England in 1066, the surname H颥rt went with it and there were myriads of English variations of the name but H颥rt still remains the original after over 1000 years. When broken down, you get ?hari+behrt? ?Hari? means army and ?behrt? means illustrious and has often been translated as "bright" or "famous"
Surnames answer many age old and even modern questions. It makes family heritage simpler and less puzzling.

In close, a Black American is only as truly black as their predecessors were. In that case, I would only be as black as my father and my fathers forefathers and my mother and her mother's mother etc. The American Negro is unlike anything or any Negritic persons existing anywhere else in the world. From me to any other Afro-American, the bloods are all very diverse, very 'set-apart', and very rich in history. Still, if anyone may pose a question, "Who Or What Is The American Negro", then the only way there may be an answer is found through delving or as a Creole may call it "ka fouye".An 'American Negro' may range from as north as Maine to as south as Chile and yet all the same, is mixed.